There has long been an interest in providing a training apparatus for rowers that most accurately reproduces the feel of rowing racing shells on the water. The search up to now has produced a variety of different designs, each suffering from certain drawbacks.
J. H. Cunningham (U.S. Pat. No. 927,833) disclosed the use of two water tanks made of concrete. A tank of similar design is presently in use at Syracuse University. Because of the convoluted channels the water must travel through, this type of tank is equipped with motors to accelerate the water. Even with motors to speed up the water, the oars used in this tank must have holes gouged in them so a racing cadence can be obtained. Because the water is forced to make an abrupt turn at the ends of the tank, thick concrete must be used to withstand the force of the water. To shape a concrete tank with rounded ends special forms must be built. Costly motors must be installed and maintained. Few rowing programs can afford such rowing tanks.
A second type of tank known in the art is shown in FIG. 4. In this type of rowing tank there is one channel in which the water circulates. The tank has four corners and is covered by a deck that bridges the four corners. Diversion plates are suspended from the decking to help divert the water from slamming into the flat walls at the corners. Once again, the walls of such a tank must be very strong to resist the force of the water slamming into the corners. An additional consequence of the water moving slowly, due to the tank's corners and end channels, is that some of the blade must be cut off a standard racing oar in order to use it in this type of tank. Cutting down the oar allows it to slip in the water, thereby permitting a stroke rate which is slightly higher than would be possible with conventional oars but which is far short of racing cadence. Simmons College in Boston, Mass. has a tank of this design.
Another type of rowing tank is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,306,219, to Solymosi. The Solymosi tank is designed for sculling, in which a single oarsman pulls two oars, rather than for sweep rowing, in which each rower pulls one oar. The present invention is an apparatus for sweep rowing. Because of the very sharp, unassisted turns in the Solymosi tank, the water will slow down markedly at the ends as well as at the sides of the tank where the oars are not pushing it.